{"id":26581,"date":"2024-11-18T19:28:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T19:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rotavicentina-blog.miewstudio.com\/ecological-monitoring-of-the-rota-vicentina-walking-trails-part-1\/"},"modified":"2024-11-18T19:38:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T19:38:14","slug":"ecological-monitoring-of-the-rota-vicentina-walking-trails-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/ecological-monitoring-of-the-rota-vicentina-walking-trails-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecological Monitoring of the Rota Vicentina Walking Trails (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/1&#8243;][vc_custom_heading]What is the purpose of a monitoring study?[\/vc_custom_heading][vc_column_text]<strong>A large part of the Rota Vicentina (RV) walking trails is located within the Southwest Coast Site of the Natura 2000 Network and the Natural Park of Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast. For this reason, it&#8217;s easy to understand that nature conservation has been a key concern for the project\u2019s promoters.<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the other hand, nature and landscape are essential elements for the success of Rota Vicentina and, more broadly, for the economic sustainability of tourism in southwestern Portugal. Therefore, even before the project began, the RV team was focused on understanding the potential ecological impacts of the walking trails and how to prevent or minimize any negative effects. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=&#8221;26555&#8243;][\/vc_single_image][vc_column_text]<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It began with an environmental impact study in 2013, prior to the opening of the trails. This marked the \u201cyear zero\u201d of monitoring.  <\/span><b>What was studied in this initial phase of the project?<\/b>[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner unlock_row_content=&#8221;&#8221; row_height_percent=&#8221;0&#8243; shift_y=&#8221;0&#8243; z_index=&#8221;0&#8243; back_color=&#8221;rgba(161,54,81,0.67)&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/1&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research was conducted on the ecological impacts of other walking routes around the world. Although monitoring these impacts is not common in Portugal, there are countries with extensive results in this area, even having a dedicated field of research within Ecology known as Recreation Ecology<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A list and characterization of all impacts of walking routes described in scientific literature were created, covering landscape, soil, vegetation, and fauna. This information was then adapted to the specific reality of this region, resulting in a set of predictable negative and positive impacts for the Rota Vicentina walking trails. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The areas crossed by the trails that would be most susceptible to negative ecological impacts were identified, particularly the coastal zone with its dune environment, which is highly sensitive to human disturbance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A set of indicators was developed and applied to measure these impacts over time. For example, if a predicted impact is the widening of trails, the trail width is measured in &#8220;year zero&#8221; and then remeasured in subsequent years. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the meantime, an initial monitoring study was conducted in 2017 <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/rotavicentina.com\/impacto-na-regiao\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">(available on the Rota Vicentina website)<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, four years after the project began, and it was repeated in 2023, marking ten years of trail operation.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=&#8221;26559&#8243;][\/vc_single_image][vc_row_inner unlock_row_content=&#8221;&#8221; row_height_percent=&#8221;0&#8243; shift_y=&#8221;0&#8243; z_index=&#8221;0&#8243;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/1&#8243;][vc_btn btn_size=&#8221;button-big&#8221; id=&#8221;fl7eglzey&#8221; icon=&#8221;icon-arrow-blog&#8221; link=&#8221;url:https%3A%2F%2Fblog.rotavicentina.miewstudio.com%2Fen%2Farticles%2F%3Fcategoria%3Dgestao-manutencao|target:_blank|&#8221;]Continue reading part 2 of this article, on &#8220;The Challenge of Alternative Trails,&#8221; here. [\/vc_btn][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/1&#8243;][vc_custom_heading]What is the purpose of a monitoring study?[\/vc_custom_heading][vc_column_text]A large part of the Rota Vicentina (RV) walking trails is located within the Southwest Coast Site of the Natura 2000 Network and the Natural Park of Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast. For this reason, it&#8217;s easy to understand that nature conservation has been a key concern [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[314,304,299,300,140],"tipos":[105],"destaques":[],"class_list":["post-26581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-maintenance","tag-educacao-ambiental-en","tag-impacto-en","tag-monitorizacao-en","tag-sensibilizacao-en","tag-walking-trails","tipos-article"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26583,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26581\/revisions\/26583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26581"},{"taxonomy":"tipos","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tipos?post=26581"},{"taxonomy":"destaques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rv-blog-stg.fera.miewstudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/destaques?post=26581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}